At least 26 dead as militants attack hotel in Somalia

At least 26 have been killed in an attack on Somalia's Kismayo hotel on Saturday.

A Briton, Americans, Kenyans and Tanzanians were among the dead, said Ahmed Mohamed, the president of the autonomous Jubaland region, while a presidential candidate for the upcoming regional elections was also killed.

The attack was carried out by al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab, Ahmed Mohamed said in a statement.

More than 50 people were also wounded. Police in Kismayo earlier put the toll at 13.

Somalia's security forces ended the overnight attack by the group in the southern port city after an hours-long siege.

"The operation is over. The four attackers were shot dead," police officer Major Mohamed Abdi told news agencies.

Al-Shabab members stormed the hotel after detonating a car bomb on Friday while local elders and legislators met to discuss approaching regional elections.

Politicians and journalists were among the dead.

"The operation was concluded at 7am... These are the prominent people. The death toll is sure to rise," local elder Ahmed Abdulle said.

The Somali journalists’ association said two journalists based in Kismayo were killed in the attack; Somali-Canadian Hodan Naleyah, founder of Integration TV, and Mohamed Sahal Omar, a reporter from SBC TV in Kismayo.

"We are saddened and outraged by this loss of life, and condemn in the strongest possible terms this appalling massacre," Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, secretary-general of the Federation of Somali Journalists, said in a statement.

They were the first journalists to be killed in Somalia this year, the association said.

The attack is the latest in a long line of bombings and shootings claimed by al-Shabaab.

Al-Shabaab, which declared allegiance to al-Qaida in 2012, has fought for more than a decade to topple the Somali government.

The militant group, estimated to number between 5,000 and 9,000, continues to control swathes of rural Somalia despite losing many strongholds across the country, including areas of the capital, Mogadishu.